I fail to see how one user's discovery of a little network utility in their proprietary operating system of choice is really worthy of being on the front page of Slashdot... If this were a Mac-centric blog, then I suppose I could understand it, but not here...

This is what your company deserves for using proprietary, closed-source software with restrictive licenses. I wish this would help ruin more companies so that more people would hear the story of how disgusting the for-profit software industry really is, and choose to use Free Software.

Don't most people take Algebra II in Junior High? I skipped it entirely myself... What level of maths do most U.S. high schools require? If it's not even Algebra II then I would say that's yet another sign of how pathetic the U.S. education system has become. Personally, I found Calculus to be one of the most beneficial, eye-opening maths classes I had in high school and think every student should be required to complete it. It can be used in so many different scenarios and yet still most people graduate from high school thinking all but basic math is useless!

If the music companies don't provide it, then I will get it elsewhere. If they don't get with the program and offer a permanent license to full-quality audio, that is not my problem. I agree with OP--there is no excuse for mp3s in this day and age!

lol, they've just signed their company's death warrant. They couldn't even get people to use NX when it was free! What hope is there now? Oh well... Hopefully Wayland will be able to do this much better anyway.

> "whether customers can someday realistically drop their cable subscriptions and go online-only for their TV"

Um...what? Someday? I've been doing this for 3 years now, and before that my roommate had it, not I. I can't fathom how or why anyone would ever pay the exorbitant prices for cable television! Seriously...do people think they NEED TV that much? That's just sad... Then again, this is the U.S. we're talking about, where the government had to pay people just so that they wouldn't lose their precious TV when switching to digital.

I realize most people are thinking the same thing, but it needs to be said... What were the creators of this site thinking, using Flash? It just makes no sense to me. Was there no thought put into it at all? Are there actually Linux users/advocates out there who do not hate Flash?

In my opinion, being Linux-friendly *cannot* exclude being Open-Source and GPL-friendly, as these are really the heart and soul of Linux. Releasing a free *license* is not like releasing the source code. This should not be applauded.

I'm glad I don't work in your office, or have to pay the software bill every couple years MS decides to release a new version merely to read all the proprietary formats. Seriously--working in that kind of environment would be so miserable.

You don't think that people who are residents only of the U.S. exist? Do you think the entire American continent (North and South) is like one country? Do you realize that outside of the U.S. and Canada, everyone else on this continent thinks it is ONE continent called America, not two separate ones? There is absolutely nothing misguided about wanting a separate adjective--whatever it's called--to refer to people from the U.S. only, excluding the other 600 million people who live in America.

As for leaving the country--believe me, if it was easier to do, I would have done it long ago. As soon as I find a way I will get the hell out of here. Self-loathing would imply that I associate myself with the United States, which I most certainly do not. Of course there are bad people everywhere--it's all about where that line is drawn in the sand. There just happen to be a lot more of them in the U.S., and for the most part they actually *like* that attribute. They also have a hell of a lot more power than in other places in the world, which is why they get more attention than others, and rightly so.

Condemning a culture and condemning a race are two ENTIRELY different things. One is largely a choice, the other is merely a physical (and scientifically proven meaningless) attribute. To equate the two is actually quite offensive. Bigot and racist are also entirely different terms. I have no problem being called a bigot when it comes to my opinion of residents of the U.S. I also don't think this is a bad thing. Of course I am talking about certain generalized behaviours exhibited by a majority of the people here, not every single individual simply because they were born here. You making such an inference is just wrong.